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Rhetoric 3
Rhetorical terms: Fason's AP class: Advanced List: List # 3
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Aesthetic | Pertaining to the value of art for its own sake or for form. |
Anadiplosis | Repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the next clause. Ex: "the crime was common, common be the pain." |
Anaphora | The regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses. For example, "We shall fight in the trenches. We shall fight on the oceans. We shall fight in the sky. |
Anastrophe | An inversion of the natural or usual word order. This deviation can emphasize a point or it can just sound awkward. Ex: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." |
Antanaclasis | The repetition of a word in two different senses. Ex: "Your argument is sound, nothing but sound." |
Anthimeria | The substitution of one part of speech for another. |
Antihero | The protagonist of a literay work who does not embody the traditional qualities of a hero. |
Antimetabole | The repetition of words in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order. Ex: "One should eat to live, not live to eat." |
Antithesis | The juxtaposition of sharply contrasting ideas in balanced or parallel words or phrases. |
Aphorism | A concise statement designed to make a point or illustrate a commonly held belief. The writings of Benjamin Franklin contain many, such as "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." |
Apology | Most commonly used as a synonym of the word defense. |
Apostrophe | A figure of speech in which a person, thing, or abstract quality is addressed as if present; for example, the invocation to the muses found in epic poetry. |
Asyndeton | The practice of omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. In a list, it gives a more extemporaneous effect and suggest the list may be incomplete. Ex: "He was brave, fearless, afraid of nothing." |
Begging the question | To sidestep or evade the real problem, leaving the real question unanswered. |
Bildungsroman | A novel or story whose theme is the moral or psychological growth of the main character. |
Canon | The works of an author that have been accepted as authentic. |
Carpe Diem | "Seize the day"- The philosophy that one should enjoy life to the fullest, take advantage of or live for the moment. |
Chiasmus | Figure of speech by which the order of the terms in the first of parallel caluses is reversed in the second. It not not involve a repetition of word. It can be used to reinforce antithesis. Ex.: "his time is a moment, and a point his space." |
Conceit | A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising anlaogy between seemingly dissimilar objects. It displays intellectual cleverness due ot the unusual comparison being made. |
Delayed sentence | A sentence that withholds its main idea until the end. Ex.: "Just as he bent to tie his show, a car hit him." |
Didactic | Intended for teaching or to teach a moral lesson |
Digression | Movement away from the main sotry or theme of a peice of writing. |
Discourse | A formal discussion of a subject. |
Doppelganger | Ghostly counterpart of a living person or an alter ego. |
Dystopia | An imaginary place where people live dehumanized, often fearful lives. |
Elegy | Poem or prose lamenting the death of a particular person. |
Epanalepsis | The repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning of the clause. Ex.: "Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answered blows." |
Epideictic | Highly cermonial or ritualized language. |
Epiphany | A sudden or intuitive insight or perception into the reality or essential meaning of something usually brought on by a simple or common occurrence or experience. |
Epistolary | A piece of literature contained in or carried on by letters. |
Epistrophe | The repetition of a word or words as the end of two ormore successive verses, clauses, or sentences. |
Foil | A person or thing that makes another seem better by contrast. |
Hamartia | Aristotle's term for the main character's tragic flaw or error in judgement. |
In medias res | "In the middle of"- refers to opening a sotry in the middle of the action, requiring filling in past details by exposition or flashback. |
Invective | The use of angry and insulting language in satirical writing. |
Isocolon | Parallel structure in which the parallel elements are similar not only in grammatical structure, but also in lenght. Ex.: "An envious heart makes a treacherous ear." |
Litote | The deliberate use of understatement in which the negative of the contrary is used to achieve emphasis and intensity. Ex.: "She is not a bad cook." |
Loose Sentence | A type of sentence in which the main idea comes first, followed by dependednt grammatical units such as prhases and clauses (dependent). A work containing many of these will often seem informal. |
Metonymy | A figure of speech that uses the name of one thing to name or designate something. Ex.: "The White House said that..." |
Motif | A recurrent device, formula, or situation that often serves as a signal for the appearance of a character or event. |
Paronomasia | The use of words that are alike in sound but diferent in meaning. A pun. |
Pedantic | Words, phrases, or a general tone that is overly scholarly, academic, or bookish. |
Periodic sentence | A sentence that presents its central meaning in a main clause at the end. It is preceeded by a dependent clause. It is used to add emphasis and structural variety. |
Polyptoton | A repetition of words derived from the same root. Ex: "But in this desert country, they may see the land being rendered useless by overuse." |
Polysyndeton | The deliberate use of many conjunctions. It is used to slow down the rythm of the sentence. |
Semantics | The branch of linguistics that studies the meaning of words, their historical and psychological development, their connotations, and their relation to one another. |
Subjective | It refers to writing that expresses the autheor's beliefs in and attitudes toward a particular subject. |
Syllepsis | The use of a word understood differently in relation to two or more other words, which is modifies or governs. Ex.: "the ink, like our pig, keeps running out of the pen." |
Syllogism | A form of deduction. It is extrmely subtle, sophisticated, or deceptive argument. |
Synesthesia | It is when one sensory experience is describes in terms of another sensory experince to create an effective yet mixed combination of senses. Ex.: the buzz of a fly is described: "With blue, uncertain stumbling buzz" |
Synecdoche | A figure of speech in which a part signifies the whole. Ex.: "head of cattle." "Hands on deck." |
Trope | The use of a word in a figurative sense iwth a decided change or extension in its literal meaning. |
Utopia | An imaginary place of ideal perfection. |
Zeugma | Grammatically correct linkage of one subject with two or more verbs or a verb with two or more direct objects. The linkage shows a relationship between ides more clearly. Ex.: "Bob exceeded at sports; Jim at academics; Mark at eating." |